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Book Review: Golden by Jessi Kirby

Do you ever feel like a book came in to your life at the right time and for a reason? Well Golden is that book for me.

Book Title : Golden

Author : Jessi Kirby

My Rating : 5 Golden Stars

Golden is a powerful, intense and beautiful book about love and hope that has inspired me to examine my own life and to make some changes. I wish I could just say, read this book, you’ll love it. But I will make an effort to try and convince you why you should.

This book is about Parker, who follows the rules and is the perfect mother-pleasing-daughter. Valedictorian and high achiever, she looks set on a path to sucess but she has never examined whose dreams she is following. Are they her own or her mothers?

In Parker’s school, the seniors are given a black and white marbled composition book and their assignment is to write in it. Fill it with words that make a picture of who they are and what their dreams for the future are. The journals are sealed and in ten years time are mailed on to the students. Can I just say how much I love this idea and how I wish I had had an English teacher who did that. I can see it might be bittersweet if your life is very different to what you planned but the idea of writing and documenting all your dreams and hopes is just sweet and I would love to have done that.

Parker in her TA role has to mail out this year’s journals and she finds a journal written by Julianna who disappeared years ago in tragic circumstances. This journal shows the thoughts and secrets that Julianna had and that are very different from the perfect, golden girl image that Parker held in her head about Julianna. So love, mystery, hope and sadness combine to make a story that carried me along for an emotional ride.

There is a quote in the journal that hasn’t left my mind since I read it’ ‘Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?’. How perfect are those words to remind you that you only get one chance at life and that your life is precious and should not be frittered away. It’s so easy to get caught up in the mundane and drift along from day to day.

I’m beyond thankful that this book came along; I feel like it threw a bucket of icy water over my head and woke me up. I have dreams and only I can make those dreams happen and if I have to work harder to make them happen, well I can do that. I’m so grateful this book reminded me not to be scared to fight, not to be scared to take chances and not to settle for less than I want. So for that reason I love this book.

But that are lots of other reasons as well. Both Parker and Julianna are great characters; they are authentic high school girls with fears and dreams. They want to please people but they also want to travel the road less travelled to find and chase their own dreams. I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with each of them and loved the way the story switched between the two via journal entries.

The writing is perfect; it drew me in and held me captivated. It gave me goose bumps and made me smile. Ok, it also made me cry and made my heart ache. And at times it made me laugh. But mostly, it made me feel alive and inspired. And there are tonnes of poetry references as well which I adored.

Can you tell yet that I loved the book? Just in case you can’t, I’m taking out my 5 star stamp and leaving my lasting impression of love for this book for you all to see. Highly recommended.

Bookish Chat : Do books effect you like they do me? Does the right book make you examine your life and try to make changes? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.

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